The lawyer who has twice moved the Lahore High Court to ban Facebook in Pakistan has 1,575 friends and spends an average of 14 hours a day on the social networking website, Facebook.
According to Express Tribune, Advocate Muhammad Azhar Siddique, on whose petition access to the website was banned in the country for two weeks last year, stays logged into Facebook from 8am to 10pm every day.
Asked whether he considered it hypocritical to spend so much time on Facebook when he was trying to get it banned, Siddique said that he checked the site “to make it mend its ways”.
He said much of his time was spent looking at messages from people informing him of any blasphemous material on the site.
He also uses the website to share how his cases are going with his Facebook friends, including his petitions to ban the website. Siddique has posted 323 pictures on his profile, including of family, friends and news clippings of his cases published in the local press.
Siddique first moved the LHC against the website last year because of a Facebook page called ‘Draw Muhammad (pbuh) Day’ in which blasphemous caricatures were put on display. Acting on his plea, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority banned Facebook from March 19 to March 31.
After that, Siddique launched the social networking website Millatfacebook, which billed itself as a social networking website for the world’s more than 1.5 billion Muslims and as a rival to Facebook.
He also lodged a complaint against Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes, the owners of the website, and a woman named Andy, the alleged founder of the offending Facebook page, at Lahore’s Civil Lines Police Station under Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code. The police sealed the FIR after registering it.
Siddique filed another petition against Facebook earlier this month again seeking a ban on the website for again hosting a page of drawings of the Holy Prophet (pbuh). The LHC chief justice, hearing the petition, last Thursday told the federal government to think about blocking Facebook for “holding a competition of sacrilegious caricatures”. Another petition by Siddique seeking implementation of these orders is pending before the LHC.
if, true, its a shame that we mend our beliefs based on interests
+1 :(
+1
No he said that he was looking for any blasphemous content. what is wrong??? I am getting wrong?
His only intention is to ban Facebook, so that he has opportunity to make his social networking site Millatfacebook popular. By the way, his website is using phpFox (a popular social community site script) and it is not a free script. This “true” Muslim is using a pirated/stolen copy of PHPFox for his site.
her baat ka gussa facebook pe hi q nikalta hai??? Ye hum pe hai k hum kese use karte hain cheezon ki.
facebook pe jahan Islam k against pages hain, wahan pe SubhanAllah Boht se Islamic Pages b hain, who teaches the ppL abt islam. Is k elawa boht se logon ka business facebook se conneted hai… Ban Case wala Lawyer ye sabb q nahi sochta???
Typical hypocrite. They watch mujra then apologize to god and say nargis did sin. they watch porn, then become pious after toba and call others sinful
we need to fight back attack on our prophet peace be upon him by logic and by raising our voice. Facebook itself is now a country of 500 million people. we need to stay on facebook and get ourselves heard. Banning facebook will take away all the logical voices that are raised from pakistan against these attempts. its like running away from the problem. we need to be heard to make changes in the world, not become reclusive. Stay on facebook, make noise, start pages that counter the offending page. use the opportunity to spread who our prophet and our religion really is.
As for this lawyer, if you ever thought he was driven for anything beyond personal fame, then i am sorry you were wrong.
It is unclear if he uses Facebook to communicate with people and correct their misconceptions of Islam OR if he uses it to find things to add to his case against facebook. If it is the first case, then I dont see why he wants to ban facebook: he will lose opportunity to spread proper Islam message. I suspect it is second case, very unfortunate.
Someone should find him on facebook and ask them there?
Wao, Kiya baat hai -G, Hypocrisy
Look carefully at this man. Do you use Blackberry? That man is responsible for blocking proper internet access to Blackberry phones for a year, with no end in sight.
Look carefully at Shahid Saleem, he is using his mind ? Man you should stopped posting your biased hypothesis all the time, soon you will get award of psycho of propakistani. You are trying to be very neutral but you are not.
bilkul sahi kaha AHMED aap ney ,shahid saleem ko sirf aik hi kaam hai propakistani pe comment karna.main ney samjhaya bhi k itni dair pc k saamney bethnay se sehat kharab ho jai gi, aur aap k comment parh k hamari tabiyat kharab ho jai gi, likin maantey hi nahi ye.
It is not biased hypothesis. He was responsible for court block last year, and court ordered PTA to block browsing for blackberry services.
Or do you have a better explanation for why PTA ordered block around same time as court order? Maybe it was a coincidence???
— You are trying to be very neutral but you are not.
That is where you are again not making any sense. How can you say I am neutral??? I don’t claim to be neutral. I speak my mind about issues I have developed opinions on. I am not news presenter who should be neutral. I am not propakistani article writer who has to try to be neutral.
I felt you did a failed effort to be neutral but you accepted you aren’t. I am not neutral at ALL, I favor this guy, I don’t use facebook anymore. There are lots of other options than facebook but now for people like you facebook is life and death situation…business won’t work without facebook…right? Pakistan’s economy will go down if facebook is blocked? nation will suffer…right?
If that guy was on facebook besides being a lawyer who are busy during this time 9am-10pm and then he is offering an alternate to facebook how can you criticize him? He is very much geniune but you being very biased and bring your own results out of it because you don’t want facebook ban in Pakistan.
— I felt you did a failed effort to be neutral but you accepted you aren’t
I am sorry, but can you point to any comment I have made about this that was neutral? Supporting and against ban at same time? I have been against ban from the beginning.
— There are lots of other options than facebook but now for people like you facebook is life and death situation…
And you know what…this guy wants them banned too
http://twitter.com/jehan_ara/status/70729897152229400
Did you forget Wikipedia and Youtube partial blocks last year? Some are still blocked this year. I reported a few weeks ago, on my ISP I cannot visit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Ali_Jinnah
etc.
— If that guy was on facebook besides being a lawyer who are busy during this time 9am-10pm and then he is offering an alternate to facebook how can you criticize him?
If he was offering an alternative without blocking Facebook, that would be different. But he wants to ban Facebook so we have no alternative but millatfacebook. Now what do you call that behavior? Fair? Unbiased?
its pity :(
@Aamir
He is a lawyer but did a great effort by launching a website, this shows his intentions were good. Aamir I didn’t expect this kind of bashing of someone, specially from you, that you will bring your likeness /dislikeness on your blog.
Please get some more mature writer than this one, not someone who brings his own likeness/dislikeness. That guy is a lawyer and we all know lawyers have to spend their this time in court rooms, bars and their offices..in this time he must not be there for chit chat or killing his time.
Munafqat pakistani style…
huh…………stupid hypocrite!! :@
@Ahsan Javed: I find is highly stupid that you would come up with this after announcing that Facebook was coming up with another Draw Mohammad Day.
Secondly, to all those people calling the advocate a hypocrite, do you not continue to use Facebook after all the hype after the first Draw Mohammad Day?
How is the advocate any less of a hypocrite than you?
If one line above advocates facbook, do let me know and if not then get the fact that it’s all about the news.
Infact the post shows lawyer’s thinking not the author or ProPakistani. Hope you understand.
@Ansan: I am not saying that you are advocating Facebook. My issue is, what is the point of this news? It not only shows the advocate in bad light but also all those against Draw Mohammad Day.
Another thing is, if someone else on Propakistani had come up with this, it would have been understandable, but for you to announce about the second Draw Mohammad Day (and I must say your article was very good), and then come up with this does not make any sense.
Regards.
@Others: Why is the advocate a hypocrite when most of us who created a fuss over the first Draw Mohammad Day continue to use Facebook?
Still my point is same, this is just to let people know what is happening around, if you feel like this is to criticize the lawyer, well the fact is, article shows more of his sayings than any personal comment on the issue.
Moreover this post in no way contradicts my previous one, (2nd Draw Muhammad Day) reason is again the same, i didn’t say lawyer is doing good or even bad.
This is just a fact revealed, left on readers’ perception what they take from it.
Ahsan accept the fact that you presented a biased analysis. If that guy was a hypocrate he was not going to offer an alternate of facebook out of his own pocket.
I first heard of this year’s event from tribune newspaper, not from facebook, any user site like reddit or digg, or from propakistani (or twitter, or other media). The tribune story was not about the event, it was about this man trying to block facebook.
For me, the event didn’t exist until this man raised issue in front of LHC.
— do you not continue to use Facebook after all the hype after the first Draw Mohammad Day?
I use Facebook beacuse I don’t think they had anything to do with the event. They did not organize it.
If facebook did not exist, do you think the event would not exist either??? The event was not even first announecd on facebook last year.
Lastly, who created hype last year? Who talked to media and protested on streets and stuffs like that? It wasn’t the people who created the event I can tell you. It was the people AGAINST the event.
Remember again story of Taif.
>I use Facebook beacuse I don’t think they had anything to do with the event.
Q1. It was Facebook which refused to remove the Draw Mohammad Day page, wasn’t it? (Even though their policy states that hate content is not tolerated).
Q2. Why is it that Facebook removes objectionable content against Christians, Jews, etc, and not against Islam?
— Q1. It was Facebook which refused to remove the Draw Mohammad Day page, wasn’t it?
Yes. And Youtube, and Blogger and Livejournal and Twitter and Orkut and Friendster and Xanga and yfrog and twitpic and imgur and reddit and digg and …
Did you stop using any of the other serveces? Do you question anyone who uses the other services? If the answer to both questions is “no” then I think you must admit you have a personal bias that has nothing to do with the event.
What is different this year? Go to google and search for
“draw muhammad” site:facebook.com
Using search tools, shorten search to “this week” or “this month”. you know what? ALMOST ALL THE PAGES ARE “Against Draw Muhammad Day” or “Muslims against Draw Muhammad Day”. The only ones I could find which were in favor of the event were FLOODED by Muslims trying to respectfully reason with them to stop them from holding event. Even those pages had few likes, less than 1,000. More Muslim posts than nonMuslim. when the site is banned, who will be unable to post there? Thats right, muslims. Who are you hurting with ban, facebook or Muslims???
Now search for the event instead of page. How many do you see? I see no more than 25 in any event. 25 people out of a site with over 500,000,000! LAST YEAR THERE WERE OVER 80,000. THIS YEAR, 25.
For 25 people you want to ban the site? I bet I can find more than 25 people who praise those “poor peaceful Taliban” who kill Pakistanis with suicide bombs.
So, again, I ask: what objection do you have against Facebook, now that the page/event is effectively stopped? Again, what will you do against blogger and youtube??? Do you have one set of rules for Facebook and one set for Youtube?
— Q2. Why is it that Facebook removes objectionable content against Christians, Jews, etc, and not against Islam?
First of all, what proof do you have that they do not remove objectionable content against Muslims? You know, my friends invite me to pages that say stuff like “Make Facebook delete page against Muhammad (PBUH) this and that” or “Force Facebook to delete page against Allah (SWT) this and that”. And every time I search for those pages, they are already gone or they are gone within a few days. To me, that is evidence that they DO delete those pages.
Yaar I really do not understand youre thinking. Facebook gives you a platform to preach Islam to millions of people without leaving your home or paying any mony (except for internet connection). Today for example online media lets me listen to preachers from all over the world. I am sure many people listening or watching are not Muslims. In this case, why would you deny yourself the ability to show the light of Islam to others on Facebook? Do you want only Muslims OUTSIDE Pakistan to preach?
I do not know of a single example where our Prophet refused to invite anyone to Islam, even if they were small tribes (like Christians of Najran) or leaders of large empires that were against Muslims (Roman empire, Persian empire etc). I do not know any time when our Prophet turned away from an opportunity like this. Can you englighten me? Maybe I did not read enough history.
>Yes. And Youtube, and Blogger and Livejournal and Twitter and Orkut and Friendster and Xanga and yfrog and twitpic and imgur and reddit and digg and …
If that is the case, why was there so much fuss over Facebook’s Draw Mohammad Day as opposed to other websites?
>Did you stop using any of the other serveces? Do you question anyone who uses the other services?
I will admit the answer is no. But then, why did everyone call for a Facebook ban only?
>For 25 people you want to ban the site?
I never said that Facebook should be banned. All I
questioned was, how and why is the advocate in the article a hypocrite (as stated by many in their comments) and not them, when they are doing exactly the same thing. i.e. calling for a ban but using Facebook.
>First of all, what proof do you have that they do not remove objectionable content against Muslims?
My proof is the first Draw Mohammad Day page, that was not removed despite requests by tens of thousands of Muslims.
— If that is the case, why was there so much fuss over Facebook’s Draw Mohammad Day as opposed to other websites?
Yes, I want to know too. do you think there is not filth against Islam uploaded to Youtube daily if not weekly? Yet who challenge anyone against Youtube? They don’t care, they are fixed on attacking Facebook. Like I said elsewhere, if i go to dinner with friends and talk about how life is etc no one cares but if I post to their wall and they post to my wall suddenly Facebook is waste of time and destroying our culture.
— But then, why did everyone call for a Facebook ban only?
Good question. I don’t have the answer. Everyone who actually tries to learn knows the timeline: the event was NEVER first discussed or posted to FAcebook. The original person who talked about “Draw Muhammad” DID NOT MENTION FACEBOOK AT ALL. It was someone who heard it from her who created the event on Facebook WITH NO ENCOURAGEMENT FRO MHER. And also several days after her staetment.
(Another thing people forget: even before May 20 2010, she said she regret what she said and did not approve of it. Yet people decided to do it anyway.)
Again, pictures were also posted on hundreds of sites, some large like Youtube and Blogger, some small like yfrog. Maybe same will happen this year, or maybe most people are bored and dont care. In two days we will know.
— All I
questioned was, how and why is the advocate in the article a hypocrite (as stated by many in their comments) and not them, when they are doing exactly the same thing. i.e. calling for a ban but using Facebook.
For the record I know of only one person who wanted to ban facebook and then also still used it after last year. Do you know who? Why, of course, this lawyer!
Some statistic I read showed a long-term drop of 400,000-600,000 Pakistani users after May last year, even after LHC ban was lifted. So, lots of people were true to their feelings and did not return after last year. But this lawyer is using it today even after he tried to ban it last year. What do you think about that?
I know a few Islamic scholars who preach using many sites (including Facebook) who decided that it was better to be on Facebook than off, and they did soemthing like not use it on May 20 2010 but returned later. Or they tried to create alternate events to promote Islam on Facebook that day.
— My proof is the first Draw Mohammad Day page, that was not removed despite requests by tens of thousands of Muslims.
I think this was explained: by fine reading of their policies it was not illegal then. However to avoid the issue, as you can see, it is not easy to find similar or same event or page this year. They have adapted and changed policies. As I have tried to show you, anti-Muslim events and pages do not stay on site for a long time.
Which still leads us to the issue of this lawyer who wants to ban the site even after they have accepted Muslim feedback and changed how they react. Why? If you go searching for things against Islam, do you even need to go as far from LHC building to Heera Mandi? Why do you need to go to a site on the other side of the world and specifically search for things? Someone should ask this lawyer.
And you know what, if people post stuff against Islam on Facebook or Youtube? Does that harm us or our religioun? Never! Do you think when our Prophet sent emmisarries to Roman Empire, that Roman Empire respected Muslims and Islam back then? No, they were wars in Northern Arabia then. And yet our Prophet still tried to invite them to Islam. In fact I read statistic that by year 750 CE, only 10% of the Muslim World was actually Muslim; rest were Christians or Jews or Zoroastrians. Yes, really!
Today all we have is war of WORDS on facebook and that is enough to get people upset. There is not a thing that non-Muslims can say or do to affect our love for our Prophet. There is not a thing that non-Muslims can say or do that can give pain to our Prophet.
@shahid Saleem
If something immoral is going on inside a hotel, what excuse will you give? Hotel shouldn’t do anything when they are aware of it? this is responsibility of those coming there ?
Man I am telling you, your logic is based on the fact that you want to see the world from your eyes (kafi kharab ho gae hongi propakistani par comment kar kar ky).
We can all use silly analogies, Ahmed! Here’s another: if a library has a book that you don’t like, do you shut the library down?
Again: if the event is not visible for us and it cant be confirmed that there really is a large event, what are we banning?
Displayed Text
shame
Wake up
اگر یہ وکیل منافق ہوتا تو کبھی فیس بک کا متبادل اپنا پیسہ لگا کر نہ لاتا . لیکن فیس بک کے چاہنے والوں کو یہ بات نظر نہی آ رہی، کسی نے یہ دیکھنے کے توفیق کی کہ وہ تصویروں پر کوممنٹ کر رہا ہے یا اپنا کیس مضبوط کرنے کے لیے واقعی مواد جمع کر رہا ہے . جھوٹے کو ہر ایک جھوٹا نظر اتا ہے ، منافق کو ہر کوئی اپنا سا دکھتا ہے . پھر ہمارے لوگوں کی کیا ہی بات ہے جو میڈیا دکھا دے، جو اپنے مطلب کا ہوا تو واہ واہ ، نہ ہوا تو تھو تھو .. مان لیں وہ فیس بک کا شوقین ہے ، پھر بند کیوں کروانا چاہتا ہے ؟ ہمارا مسلہ یہ ہے کے اگر کسی کی ٹانگ نہی کھنچ پا رہے تو نیت پر شک شروع کر دو، کوئی ڈرامہ کہانی بنا دو پھر کوئی نہی پوچھے گا سچا تھا یا جھوٹا نہ کوئی تحقیق کرے گا ، سب تھو تھو کریں گے …سیالکوٹ میں بھی حافظ قرآن کو ڈاکو کے طور پر پیش کر کے مارے تھے نہ ہم نے ؟
Ban him, Ban all lawyers. They are un-Islamic. They preach the law of the British. They cheat in courts. They are corrupt. Ban them or Hang them.
This lawyer is a cheat. He gets a website blocked and then launches his own, which he copies from the that website. Later on he changes it. He states he is doing it for the millat. Well, let the millat decide what they want. If he was genuine, he would fight fairly with the other website.
Ban everything. Ban it, Ban it, Ban it.
Watch Business+ channel tonight at 9pm for show on this case.
http://twitter.com/tammyhaq/status/70738156919595008
Jehan Ara of PASHA will be there:
http://twitter.com/jehan_ara/status/70726436775923712
hahaha Business plus of Salman Taseer ….
Have you seen salmantaseer.com Pakistan isn’t even in country list if you choose condolence form… This is treatment people like you deserve. Munafiq will now declare others munafiq.
And who watches Business plus…? Who knows it even.
Did you check the full form? It’s written “Islamic Republic of Pakistan” :) Happy now?
A bloody hypocrite .. thats all.. i don’t want to waste more of my words on this shameful creature!!!!!
i love this site.. really the discussion is also enjoyable..
shahid saleem answer me??